BBC viewers saw Thomas Skinner compete on Strictly Come Dancing last year with Amy Dowden.
Thomas Skinner has announced he’ll be heading back to the BBC following his absence from the Strictly Come Dancing final last month.
Speaking on Tuesday’s (January 13) edition of Good Morning Britain, the former Apprentice contestant joined ITV hosts Ed Balls and Susanna Reid for a candid discussion. Last year saw Thomas paired with beloved professional Amy Dowden on Strictly, who recently detailed his decision not to appear on the finale. His involvement attracted considerable online criticism even before his first performance.
The businessman became the first contestant eliminated from the competition, leading to claims among viewers that the public vote had been manipulated due to the surrounding controversy.
However, Susanna read out an official BBC statement during the interview, which confirmed: “Strictly Come Dancing’s public vote is independently overseen and verified to ensure complete accuracy every week. Any claims to the contrary are entirely without foundation.”
During the chat, Thomas reflected on his short-lived Strictly journey and disclosed his intentions to collaborate with the broadcaster again. Discussing speculation around potential legal proceedings against the BBC, Thomas explained: “I did have some chats with the BBC, I did.
“They said ‘You’ve been sent something you shouldn’t have been sent, it is what it is. We think you should get some legal advice.’ That was the chat with the BBC. I’ve got no rows with the BBC, I was on the Celebrity Apprentice raising money for Children in Need a week after, and I’m doing bits with them next year.”
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Susanna pointed out that he was absent from the reunion finale, prompting him to share his reasons.
He explained: “The reason I didn’t come back, this is the honest truth. I thought, I’ve had all this bad press, I’ve been front page every time I’ve been on the show, I didn’t want to take away from everyone else.
“I didn’t want my wife to think, ‘Oh, there’s another story about us now.’ It wasn’t fair. But anyway, I ended up being front page anyway! So it didn’t really matter.”
Although Thomas missed the Strictly final, which saw Karen Carney and Carlos Gu triumph, he revealed that Amy has become a ‘family friend’. He also mentioned to Susanna and Ed that he’s arranged to play golf with Strictly pro Kai Widdrington in the upcoming weeks.
Reflecting on the media attention during his time on the BBC programme, Thomas confessed: “It was stupid, there were journalists outside my house following my wife back from Sainsbury’s, I saw my wife getting upset, and that’s what hurt me more than anything, my wife and my family.
“They were knocking on my sister’s door, they were knocking on my friends door, they sat in my local pub and offered people money to sell stories on me! It was mad.2
Thomas might of gone out first on Strictly, but his time on the BBC programme was far from smooth sailing. Things didn’t get off to a great start for the BBC star, when he stormed out of an interview after snatching a reporter’s phone.
It was claimed he would be ‘suing the BBC’ for rigged voting claims following his early exit from the BBC show. He said he had received an “anonymous email” the night he got the boot from the show, which prompted his concerns.
Following that, Tom then said he had asked to see the official voting figures, but claimed the email ‘couldn’t be shown to him’, and he did not attend the final despite all the other celebrities returning.
“I also want to be honest. I know what’s likely to come next. I expect people will call me a liar, they’ll try to cancel me, say I’m hated, or even claim I didn’t get any votes at all. At this point, I don’t care anymore. I know what’s right, and I know the conversations I’ve had,” he said in a statement, “I understand that much of what’s happened is my own fault. I know I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life and I hold my hands up to that.
“I’m not perfect and I’ve never pretended to be. But what I can’t accept is my family being dragged into this. So I need to take a step back. I never wanted any of this to become public.”
He later admitted he “regretted” signing up for the show but vowed to continue working with the BBC after they gave him his “big break” on The Apprentice several years ago.
“If I’m being completely honest, I really regret doing Strictly Come Dancing. I wish I’d never done it,” he shared, “The only positive to come from it was making a new friend in Amy, who is a genuinely lovely person. Aside from that, it’s brought a huge amount of negative attention, and it has affected me more than I’d like to admit.”
The Mirror exclusively revealed that Skinner’s voting figures weren’t what they might have seemed. Insiders have pointed to an independent exit poll of 125,000 viewers which was carried out concurrently by website Strictly Spoiler as “clear evidence of his unpopularity.” It shows how Skinner attracted just 1805 votes, which was the lowest of any contestant on the BBC programme.
Like the official voting figures which are then combined with the judges’ scores, it placed Skinner bottom. A source claims: “The poll – which is larger than an exit poll for a general election – comprehensively shows that Skinner was the least popular contestant by a long way. There is no conspiracy. These are the cold, hard facts.”
Source: Mirror
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